Jung's work presented many important concepts to the world which are largely continuing to be misunderstood and not taken seriously. This is itself understandable since he was pointing us to the unconscious self, which is precisely the parts of us that we are out of touch with and in denial of. While some of our ancient ancestor's thoughts were based on superstition (as some of ours are today) they also definitely did hold important understandings about the energetic reality of our planet and cosmos which were long ago tossed out and ridiculed as being nonsense. When humans are dedicated to understanding themselves, each other, the earth and our origins many things will come to be understood which show our ancestors were often far closer to the truth of things than the majority of our science minded people are now.
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For this reason, I try to practice Metta every day. May all beings dwell in love, kindness, peace, and joy. It begins with feeling into the Self, and receiving pure Metta, like breathing in love and exhaling compassion. If the warmongers could feel into universal lovingkindness that is the birthright of all the material plane, they would perhaps exhale peace.
I know they are dwelling instead in one of the many hells we humans contrive for ourselves instead. The Hungry Ghost, for example, with its microscopic mouth and bottomless stomach! Hell is insatiable.
We all are bound up together, the generous and creative "biophiles" along with the cynical and denying "necrophiles" in a churning engine fueling the spiral
Absolutely, yes - real compassion is truly needed now more than ever. The pathway to real compassion must include within it total acceptance for the full spectrum of emotional response within us - it is too common for people to think they are being compassionate by holding back anger, when in truth it is a form of denial to do so. I am not saying that anger should be unleashed as a weapon - only that anger itself is often loving in it's pure form as it seeks to protect what is loved. Everything has it's right place, including our anger.
Many of the 'death eaters' have origins which are primarily denial itself - they have been caused through forms of denial and are actually pretty far from being real people!
I have been fortunate enough to experience and recover from certain aspects of mental illness, such as "splitting". During splitting, one dissociates pure good from pure evil and compartmentalizes them. I have acted out in regrettable ways due to splitting fugues, which has taught me what it feels like to become "evil". It is part and parcel of humanity to have the continuum within us all. We must stop denying our split off shadows.
There is a children's book, from Sesame Street: "There Is a Monster at the End of This Book," starring lovable, furry Grover. He spends each page frantic over the monster looming at the end of the book, nailing the pages down, bricking them in...but the child keeps turning each page...and there, at the end of the book, is lovable, furry old Grover. Who technically is a muppet "monster".
Compassion grows in me when I recognize how flawed I am and how the flaws inhibit and frustrate, even damage or destroy. You are so right on, we must befriend scary emotions like anger, even hate, in order to develop true compassion.
Another point about compassion is that it is not ennabling. Allowing wrongdoers to continue injustices is not helpful to intrinsically positive outcomes in their lives, either.
Thank you for this discussion.
You are welcome. Thankyou too.
I have found it helps to recognise that the persona mind that many people think they 'are' (their personality and character) is actually our own creation. We are the creator of the personality and always have been - so it follows that if we conceptualise concepts such as good and evil within the framework / reference point of our personality - then we are definitely also creating. When this is felt and understood, it becomes easier to redefine the situation in a more conscious way that appreciates that we are free to define/align and be as is preferred, without denial - rather than unconsciously following our own programs and judgements which have us apparently acting automatically (internally) and which can lead to splits and fragmentation.
I have experienced this too to some extent - I think most of us have, but we typically don't look at it closely enough to recognise what has occurred - instead we end up looking through multiple lenses at once and trying to carry on as if there is no problem.
I am glad you have learned so much and are able to now appreciate yourself all the more and bring loving light to the parts that need it so much!